Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy explains why Anthropic is winning (and it’s not the model)
Quick Answer
Anthropic achieved a staggering $47 billion revenue run rate by May, a leap from $9 billion in 2025, showcasing unprecedented growth in the tech industry.
Quick Take
Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy, who led a $500M Series D investment, emphasizes that the success isn't solely due to the model but rather other driving factors behind the startup's rapid ascent.
Key Points
- Anthropic's revenue run rate skyrocketed from $9 billion to $47 billion in just months.
- Menlo Ventures led a significant $500M Series D funding round for Anthropic.
- Matt Murphy highlights unprecedented growth not seen in 25 years of investing.
- The podcast discusses factors beyond the model driving Anthropic's success.
- Murphy backed Anthropic before it gained widespread attention.
📖 Reader Mode
~2 min readAnthropic leaped to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy says he’s never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the internet wave, not in mobile, not in the first cloud boom. Menlo led Anthropic’s $500M Series D, and Murphy has had a front-row seat as the company went from a pre-revenue, pre-launch bet to one of the most valuable startups out there.
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Julie Bort talks with Murphy about backing Anthropic before anyone else would, why a great model was never the point, and what’s driving the fastest-growing startups he’s ever seen.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
Topics
Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch focusing on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of 2 producers at a four-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered live performances and interviews from guests like lovelytheband. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelors degree in Communication from Monmouth University.
You can contact or verify outreach from Theresa by emailing theresa.loconsolo@techcrunch.com.
Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news
— Originally published at techcrunch.com
Want this in your inbox every morning?
Daily brief at your local 8am — bilingual EN/中文, free.
More from TechCrunch
See more →
AI chip startup Etched defies skeptics, hits $10.3B valuation from big-name investors
AI chip startup Etched has achieved a $10.3 billion valuation after a $300 million Series C funding round, led by Sequoia and supported by notable investors like Andreessen Horowitz. The company claims to have developed innovative low-voltage chips for AI inference, significantly enhancing performance and reducing costs, with $1 billion in orders already booked.
